Crews working to clear snow from NY expressway

A New York State Department of Transportation plow is dug out of the snow after being stuck near Exit 60 eastbound on the Long Island Expressway after a storm, Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013, in Ronkonkoma, N.Y. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)
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A New York State Department of Transportation plow is dug out of the snow after being stuck near Exit 60 eastbound on the Long Island Expressway after a storm, Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013, in Ronkonkoma, N.Y. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)
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April Palmieri digs out her car in front of her home, background left, on 17th Street after a snow storm on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013 in Bayville, N.Y. Palmieri had five feet of water in her basement as result of the rains from Superstorm Sandy. A howling storm across the Northeast left the New York-to-Boston corridor shrouded in 1 to 3 feet of snow Saturday, stranding motorists on highways overnight and piling up drifts so high that some homeowners couldn't get their doors open. More than 650,000 homes and businesses were left without electricity. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)— AP

April Palmieri digs out her car in front of her home, background left, on 17th Street after a snow storm on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013 in Bayville, N.Y. Palmieri had five feet of water in her basement as result of the rains from Superstorm Sandy. A howling storm across the Northeast left the New York-to-Boston corridor shrouded in 1 to 3 feet of snow Saturday, stranding motorists on highways overnight and piling up drifts so high that some homeowners couldn't get their doors open. More than 650,000 homes and businesses were left without electricity. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)
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Wayne Gingo, of Medford, N.Y., gets back into his car that got stuck in the snow on the Long Island Expressway eastbound near Exit 60, Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013, in Ronkonkoma, N.Y. Gingo was driving home from his job as a postal worker at JFK Airport and got stuck in the snow at 1:45 a.m. He spent the night in the car waiting for a tow truck. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)— AP

Wayne Gingo, of Medford, N.Y., gets back into his car that got stuck in the snow on the Long Island Expressway eastbound near Exit 60, Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013, in Ronkonkoma, N.Y. Gingo was driving home from his job as a postal worker at JFK Airport and got stuck in the snow at 1:45 a.m. He spent the night in the car waiting for a tow truck. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)
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Traffic is backed up on the Long Island Expressway just west of Exit 59 Ocean Avenue as payloaders clear snow from the road after a storm, Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013, in Ronkonkoma , N.Y. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)— AP

Traffic is backed up on the Long Island Expressway just west of Exit 59 Ocean Avenue as payloaders clear snow from the road after a storm, Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013, in Ronkonkoma , N.Y. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)
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A sign on the Long Island Expressway warns drivers traveling eastbound near exit 49 after a snow storm on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013 in Plainview, N.Y. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)— AP

The Statue of Liberty is seen through a haze of snow blown off a building on a East River pier, Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013 in New York. A behemoth storm packing hurricane-force wind gusts and blizzard conditions swept through the Northeast overnight. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)— AP

The Statue of Liberty is seen through a haze of snow blown off a building on a East River pier, Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013 in New York. A behemoth storm packing hurricane-force wind gusts and blizzard conditions swept through the Northeast overnight. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
/ AP

PATCHOGUE, N.Y. 
The harrowing images from New York's slice of the massive snowstorm - people stranded overnight, cars abandoned on long stretches of drift-covered highways - were slowly erased Sunday on the far reaches of Long Island, where hundreds of snowplows and heavy equipment descended on a region battered by storm again and to try to help clear the way for Monday's commute.

Plow trucks slogged through the roadways of eastern Long Island on Sunday, making pass after pass on snow-, ice- and sometimes car-clogged roads. Only about 400 customers were still without power Sunday night, down from a peak of almost 50,000 customers. And that's close to fulfilling pledges made by utility executives that nobody would be in the dark more than a day - a far cry from Superstorm Sandy, when hundreds of thousands were without power for days.

Parts of eastern Long Island were slammed with 30 inches of snow from the storm. Hundreds of cars got stuck on area roads including the Long Island Expressway, a 27-mile stretch of which was closed Sunday for snow-removal work. It was slow going, and even by early afternoon, snow was still packed on some highways.

Suffolk County Executive Steven Bellone said the goal was to have most major highways cleared down to asphalt by the end of Sunday.

More than a third of all the state's snow-removal equipment was sent to the area, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said, including more than 400 plow trucks and more than 100 snowblowers, loaders and backhoes.

"The massive amount of snow left behind effectively shut down the entire region," he said.

The expressway was shut down Sunday morning and initially was expected to re-open at 5 p.m., but authorities pushed that to 9 p.m. for the stretch between exits 57 and 73. The snow-removal trucks had to deal with not only inches and inches of snow, but a layer of ice. They also had to maneuver around abandoned cars.

On Sunrise Highway, which runs parallel to the Long Island Expressway, Dennis Lawrence, of Bellport, N.Y., had already spent 90 minutes digging out the car he had abandoned and had at least another 30-60 minutes to go. He left it there Friday after getting stuck on his way home from his job in New York City.

"The car was all over the place, it just slid over and wouldn't move," the 54-year-old elevator mechanic said. "I finally decided today to come and get it."

In addition to the snow from the storm, his car had gotten buried from snow displaced by passing plow trucks. Meanwhile, the roadway surface was still covered in inches of snow, only occasional spots of blacktop visible.

All known abandoned vehicles were searched, and no one needing medical help was found, a police spokeswoman for Suffolk County said Sunday.

The glut of stalled cars led to questions over whether officials should have closed roads, as happened in other states.